united_99
Takes pleasure in other people's pain
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2012
- Messages
- 9,568
Without replying to everything as according to this logic no manager should ever get credit for a signing as the player was coming anyway or something like that.1) I personally, despite my complete belief that Ole will fail to win anything, wouldn't sack him at this point in time. If he fails to make it out of the group stage I'd sack him on the spot. If not I'd wait until the end of the season and sack him if we've won nothing come that point. Right now I'd aim for Zidane as I don't think Conte would be the great fit that a lot of people think he'd be.
2) No. I think there's no real football people above the manager and that has plagued the club since SAF departed as both Mourinho and LvG have alluded to or just outright stated. SAF maybe didn't need anyone above him because he sort of ran everything but times are different now and there needs to be more experience throughout the club, like how Bayern are run for example.
3) Whilst I think our squad has improved immensely, I don't actually think Ole has been so instrumental in the changes in personnel.
So, overall I think we're better off than when Ole started in terms of squad but I also think a lot of these situations could feesibly have occurred without Ole's influence. What do you think about his role with our incomings?
- He spent 10m on Ighalo loan which was a waste of time & money.
- £50m for AWB who is one of the weak links in the team, exceptional at one on one defending but has real shortcomings elsewhere.
- £55m for Bruno but we should have got him in the summer, especially as he claims he nearly went to Spurs in that window but we risked it going to January. Bruno was also hardly a stroke of genius given that he had been involved in 79 goals in his last 79 games for Sporting.
- Maguire is a great addition in my opinion, I'm not a fan of all the stick he gets but we were already in for him as Mourinho was trying to get him and it was hardly a steal at £85m.
- Dan James, oddly one of our best bits of business. I don't mind taking a punt on a player for cheap & when they don't work out sell them for a good profit. Good business here.
- van de Beek has been a disaster so far. Lots of suggestion that he wasn't Ole's signing, idk if that's true but he certainly hasn't been a hit with Ole.
- Diallo, we have to wait and see what happens here but decisions like bringing Jesse back into the fold is only going to prevent Diallo from being a success.
- Pellistri, we have to wait and see but they can't all succeed with us I suppose.
- Cavani was a last minute panic buy that thankfully worked out.
- Telles was sensible at the time because of Shaw's injury woes. Unfortunate for Telles that Shaw seems to suddenly be indestructable but I think Telles is still good cover.
- Varane was forcing his way to us and would have done with or without Ole. He always had a thing for us ever since he was 18 and SAF nearly got him. Obvious signing.
- Ronaldo, don't personally think Ole was relevant to this deal happening or not.
- Sancho will come good I'm certain of it but he actually is the opposite of how Ole plays so I think he will be a success but not while Ole is with us.
- Finally, the GK situation has been an absolute mess made by Ole. Bringing Dean back but not letting Romero go to Everton, turning down £10m and paying Romero £5m in wages to sit in reserves & show him total disrespect was a disgrace. Then we unsettle both Dean and de Gea and get shaky performances from both. Then we bring in Heaton as a #2 but fail to ship out Dean or de Gea so now we have two first choice GKs, a 2nd choice in Heaton and 3rd choice Grant. Utter mess.
We know that United managers have a say in the signings. At least he tells the club the kind of profile he likes. For example I don’t think Mourinho would have bought Bruno (takes too many risks) or Sancho (too young, does not defend, etc.).
Equally Ole has not spent huge money on someone who never wanted to be here (AdM).
So Ole does indeed deserve much more credit for our squad building than people are willing to admit.